NSW govt agencies benefit from outsourced support centre

Left to right – Rod Greenaway, Tony Windever, Minister Perrottet, John Hubby, John Sidoti

NSW finance minister, Dominic Perrottet, on Friday cut the ribbon on a new centralised IT service desk that is supporting seven government agencies across the state.

The Unisys-run service desk, initially launched in December, has created 128 new jobs under the new GovConnectNSW brand.

It provides a centralised point of contact for the IT and field services, as well as the SAP support, payroll, finance, HR and procurement functions provided by Infosys.

Agencies currently using the support centre include the Department of Finance, Services and Innovation; the Department of Premier and Cabinet; the Public Service Commission; Service NSW; The Treasury; NSW Office of the Children’s Guardian, and the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal.

Since its initial launch, the service desk has provided a faster response time and higher guarantee of connecting on first call.

Though the number of calls in January 2016 increased by 29 per cent compared to January 2015, calls were answered within a third of the time (50 seconds vs 152 seconds) and the number of missed calls fell by two thirds.

The NSW government has said moving from ServiceFirst to the new model is expected to save $13.4 million the first six years of the Unisys contract.

Including associated beneficiary agencies, Unisys is now supporting a total of 24 agencies across the NSW government. The vendor has also begun a transformation program to transition the client agencies to a consumption-based model.

“This government is committed to delivering the best service to NSW taxpayers, and part of that is making sure the government itself is operating as efficiently as possible,” said Perrottet.

“Bringing in an expert provider like Unisys means public servants will have access to the latest IT technology and faster turnaround times, enabling them to provide better service to the people of NSW."

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